From Jan. 22-25, the Upper School’s Model UN team competed at GatorMUN, the University of Florida’s Model UN competition. This was the team’s first time competing, though they hope to make it an annual event for the team.
“Gulliver is making GatorMUN an annual thing,” Head of the signature International Diplomacy & Legal Studies Program Gabriel Medina said. “Participating in local conferences is more accessible (monetarily and logistically), which allows me to take more students, especially for their first conference. Additionally, this was actually one of the best-run conferences we have attended since I took over last school year,” Medina said.
The team had a wide range of students, from freshmen stepping outside their comfort zone and competing for the first time outside of class, to veteran seniors who had placed at several events.
“Having been a part of the program for four years now, and this being my last conference, it means a lot for me to go out winning the best delegate [award],” senior and Model UN president Elisa Tarac said. “To also have the whole delegation win an award overall means a lot to me because it means the future of this program after I am gone is in good hands.”
The team participated in three different types of committees: General Assembly, Crisis, and Specialized Committee (Spec). The difference between the three is that a General Assembly (GA) usually has over 100 people in one room, and only has a front room where people give speeches. In a crisis, there is a back room for people to write notes and affect the front room; each room is usually around 20 people. Finally, Spec is a combo of both, with smaller rooms but no back room.
The team arrived on Thursday night; on Friday morning, they were given a tour of the campus by former student Orlando Sthory ‘25. After the team began their Eagle’s Nest tradition, where they do their final prep before competition starts. The Eagle’s Nest ended with International Diplomacy and Law Department Chair and Model UN Sponsor Gabriel Medina giving a speech, inspiring students to try their best while also having fun.
On Saturday night, once the final gavel had been struck and the final sessions ended, the team went to an escape room for team bonding.
“The escape room was so much fun,” senior Gabriela Fernandes said. “Having to solve puzzles and work together as a team was a little hard, but being able to connect with people and learn more about each other, it makes it worthwhile, even if my group was the last to get out.”
Overall, the team did very well, with the overall delegation getting an outstanding rating for large delegations.
Below is the list of individuals’ awards:
Elisa Tarac ’26 Best Delegate
Joey Haring ‘26 Best Delegate
Aisha Ahluwailia ‘29 Honorable Mention
AJ Shaidieva ‘27 Honorable Mention
Xander Foumia ‘28 Verbal Commodation
Caleb Donelan ‘29 Verbal Commodation
Bianca Harley ‘29 Position Paper Award
The Model UN team’s next competition is this week at Harvard University, where they look to emulate the success of this conference.
